Gel forming agents are materials that, when in contact with a liquid or fluid substance, cause that liquid or fluid substance to become a gel. Applications of gel forming materials include absorbing urine in diapers (particularly, disposable diapers) (Buchholz, 1994; Buchholz, 1996) gel formation with other bodily fluids in health care products, use in a variety of personal hygiene products, use in fluid absorption in medical procedures, use in time release drug delivery (Jeong, 1997), use in cell culturing (von Recum, 1998; Kisiday, 2002) and tissue regeneration (growth) (Lee, 2001), and use in agriculture techniques including water (Hüttermann, 1999), fertilizer (Karada{hacek over (g)}, 2000), and pesticide (Rudziniski, 2002) controlled release. New gel forming agents are of interest as commercial entities if they display improved or different gel forming properties from those currently available.
All patents, patent applications, provisional patent applications and publications referred to or cited herein, are incorporated by reference in their entirety to the extent they are not inconsistent with the teachings of the specification.